Story+1985-01-10+Louisville,+KY

´´This is about falling through the bottom.....”
 * 10.01.85 Louisville, KY, intro to ´Johnny 99´**

´´Thanks....we´re gonna be playing a long time tonight so you guys could sit down for a while if you want, it´s gonna be a long show....do some wear and tear on your feet.....yeah .....this is a song about blind faith and how....it´s so hard to find something to hold on to.... something to believe in that sometimes....people believe in anything that comes along.....”
 * 10.01.85 Louisville, KY, intro to ´Reason to Believe´**

´´Thank you, this is a.....song I wrote, I guess, uh.....I was driving through Phoenix, Arizona, in the late-70´s.....(?) me and a friend of mine were driving across country going to California ....and uh....I stopped in this drugstore....and I was looking for a book to read.....and I found this book called Born on the Fourth of July, it´s by a....a Vietnam Veteran named Ron Kovic....and it was his story about coming home, how he felt and what he found when he came home after that war....this is a, this is a song about coming home, this is called ´Shut Out the Light´.....”
 * 10.01.85 Louisville, KY, intro to ´Shut Out the Light´**

´´Thanks, there´s uh.....everybody knows that the day before yesterday was Elvis´ 50th birthday....and uh....there´s a lot stuff on TV about him about now, I guess....the real good show on, uh....called ´One Night With You´, I guess they´re playing it on HBO....it´s a tape of the ´´68 Special´ when he was really, he was just about at his best, if you get a chance to watch that, that´s something, something great to see....but uh, it was around 1975, I was down in Memphis....and it was kind of late at night, it was after the show and me and Steven, my guitar player, we, uh, decided we were gonna go out and get something to eat....so we called a taxi and a taxi came by and picked us up at the motel and the guy said he knew some place to eat that was out by Elvis´ house....so we said ´Oh, you know where Elvis lives ?´, he says ´Yes´, we go ´Take us right there´ so he took us out to Elvis´....I remember we got out, got out of the cab and we stood there in front of those gates, he had the gates with the guitar players on ´em....and I seen, I seen a light in the window like in the second, second-floor window....like I was sure that like Elvis was home and like he was in bed reading or something (chuckles) and so....I decided I was gonna try and meet him, I jumped over the wall and I ran up the driveway towards the frontdoor....and it´s uh (chuckles) see, now, see, now like sometimes I think it was a stupid thing to do ´cause like I hate it when people do it at my house so (chuckles) so but anyway (chuckles) I did it (chuckles) I jumped over the wall and I ran up to the door and just as I was about to knock on the door, these guards came out of the woods and they said ´What do you want ?´, you know, and I said ´Well, is Elvis home ? I´d like to meet Elvis´ (chuckles) and they said ´No, no, he´s in Lake Tahoe´, I said ´Yeah, but you see like, like I was on the cover of Time and Newsweek´, they said ´Oh yeah, sure you were, yeah, oh, yeah ! oh yeah ! alright, yeah, sure, oh, you´re that guy, yeah, ok´ (chuckles) and they took me down by the gate and they put me back out on the street (chuckles)...but uh....anyway, I don´t know what I would´ve said if I´d met him...... but I know that, that I felt a real....I felt like a part of me died when a friend of mine called me up and told me that he´d.....and told me that he´d died.....it was hard to understand how somebody who came in and took away so many people´s loneliness could´ve ended up so lonely....´cause, uh, he deserved a lot better than that.....so....here´s happy birthday, this is called ´Bye Bye Johnny´.....”
 * 10.01.85 Louisville, KY, intro to ´Johnny Bye Bye´**

´´Now, this is a song....about ancient history....no, I´m not talking ´bout the Mesopotamians ....I´m not talking ´bout the Trojans....or the Italians....I´m not talking ´bout none of that stuff you learn in school....I´m talking about personal things....about old times....now, I´ve got my share of old times....now, Clarence, he´s got more than me....and being that his birthday is about 1 a.m tonight....he´s gonna have some more, he´s gotta continue.....but as you can see, he has maintained his youthful beauty....yes he has.....but like back when I was a kid, like, I was only interested in three things....like, my father was a pool player so, like, I was interested in pool and I was interested in the guitar....and then the third thing was....you know, that one (chuckles)....but I can remember one Christmastime my mother took me to Newark, New Jersey, to a Sears and she bought me, for 69.95, she bought me pooltable and like we tied it to the roof of the car and like, we´d, you know, I was holding it down in the snow, we were coming home....and then we got it in the house, my father wouldn´t let me keep it downstairs so we had to like lug it upstairs, I put it in my bedroom....but like that was ok because like I used to bring my girlfriends over and like I´d say ´Dad, we´re gonna go up in room and play pool for a little while´....but like, but like he was real slick because the kitchen was right underneath my bedroom and if he didn´t hear the poolballs knocking around, if he didn´t hear the guitar strumming, he had this broomstick that he used to bang on the ceiling to interrupt my concentration....but like I used to kind of trick him because like I´d pull the pooltable like real over close to the bed and then every once in a while I would lean up and knock the poolballs around a little bit....that worked pretty good....but, but anyway, as I grew older, I put away childish things....stopped playing pool....and of the other two, the only one I became good at was the guitar....but the third one, I´m still willing to practise, practise, practise.....I´m gonna get it down this year, that´s my New Year´s resolution..... gonna be perfect (chuckles) oh shit, in the end....in the end all things must pass....and you´re left with nothing but glory days...oh yeah....here we go now....help me sing the song, boys...”
 * 10.01.85 Louisville, KY, intro to ´Glory Days´**

´´This is a song, I guess....around ´80, ´82 I was living in California for a while....and I was thinking back to the town that I grew up in, what it was like there, what had happened there ....and uh....I guess everybody when they grow up, they kind of grow up with a love-hate relationship with the place they were raised and when I was 16, I thought that the town I grew up in was just so small-minded and so narrow, and it was, it was....but uh, sometimes it blinds you to the good things that are there too....and as I got older, I started to come home off the road and I´d get in my car and I´d drive back through town, I´d visit some of my old friends, see what their lives were like, what they´d done.....and uh....I got to understanding that one of the things....I guess I was afraid of when I was a kid was I was afraid of belonging to something....´cause when you say that you belong to something that means there´s some, there´s some responsobility there.....if you say ´I´m an American´, it means....it means a lot more than just standing up and waving a flag....it means you´ve got some responsobility to America....now....here in this country we´ve got a lot of things to be proud of and we certainly have a lot of things to be ashamed about.....but tonight when you go out into the lobby....you´re gonna see some people that are trying to live up to their responsobility of their community....they´re called the Dare-to-Care Foodbank.....of Louisville....and what a foodbank is is every year 20 percent of all the food that gets produced in America gets thrown away or it gets wasted, meanwhile in every city and every state we´ve got people that are going hungry, kids that are undernourished....and what a foodbank does is it gets that food and it gets it to the agencies to serve the people....and that´s old folks whose social security checks don´t get ´em through the month, who worked their whole lives and they still can´t make it, there´s people who´ve been hit hard by unemployment, people who the trickle-down-theory of economics is not trickling down to .....kids, kids that are undernourished, anybody that needs a helping hand....so tonight when you go out there in the lobby, please check ´em out, they´re the Dare-to-Care Foodbank, they could use your support whether it´s a buck or if you´ve got some time to volunteer for ´em, they could use that, and sometimes hunger, it seems like something that´s just happening in some place way far away but it´s not, it´s happening every day right here in your hometown ..... ´´
 * 10.01.85 Louisville, KY, intro to ´My Hometown´**

´´Now, you see, this is a song....about the conflict...between worldly things and spiritual health....between desires of the flesh....and spiritual ecstasy....(?)....now, where did this conflict begin ?...well, it began in the beginning....in a place called the Garden of Eden .... now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia.... but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City off the New Jersey Turnpike !....now, that´s why they call this the Garden State .... but now understand, in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living, you didn´t have no Laundromat you could run down to and wash your little clothes in the machine, you couldn´t go home at night and put them little Poptarts in the toaster and jump in bed and watch Johnny Carson....you couldn´t go out onto the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....no Sir !....in the Garden of Eden, there was no sin...there was no sex....man lived in a state of innocence ....when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I live in....but before the beginning of this tour I decided to make a spiritual journed to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries...so I hitchhiked out there and I found out that that spot was now occupied by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot....I walked in....the man said ´Son, you need a yellow convertible, a four-door Deville, with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioner, automatic heat, a full fold-out bed in your backseat, 8-track, tapedeck, TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you´re driving all alone?´....I said ´I´ll take two´ ...then I said ´But, Dan, but, Dan, that´s not the reason why I came, what I wanna know is, I need the answer to this conflict, what´s this temptation all about, when soul pulls me one way and my body pulls me´...and he said ´Son, well, that´s easy...because right here on these ten beautifully commercially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that Man has ever seen, now, in the Garden of Eden, there was many wonderous things, there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.... there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve, and she looked so fine....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman....and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch....and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman....and then they went out in the green fields and they lay down....and when Adam....well, let´s just say it was the first time....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal and sent them driving down into the darkness below....but that´s alright because right here tonight on this backlot I have their getaway car....and for 99.95 and no money down, if you´ve got bad credit, don´t worry about it, it´s good here....if you´ve got the nerve to ride, I´ve got the keys to the first....pink....Cadillac....”
 * 10.01.85 Louisville, KY, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´**

´´Yeah, I remember it was right....it was ´round the end of the summertime.....there was this strip down off the river where I.....where people used to go....and dump, it was like an old junkyard, people from town’d take down the things that they didn’t want no more and leave ´em there to rust....and there was this spot down, we used to meet under this, under this cottonwood tree....that was where I met her.....and...you know how it is, like, when you´re first going out with somebody, you´re laughing all the time... and everything you do is fun.... we´d go out riding....but then it seemed like time passed....and the things that made her happy once just didn´t make her happy any more....and I was spending most of my time.... trying to find something to make her happy again....and she got to where she wanted to stay in all the time and we couldn´t talk no more.....and she’d hide my keys at night so I couldn’t take out the car....and it got hard to make her understand ....and I know that once she knew that when I took the car out and when I won ....that it was the only time....I got to feeling ....good about myself....and I know she used to know ....and to have just one thing in your whole life that you can do....that makes you feel proud of yourself.....well, I don´t think that’s too much for anybody to ask.....is it ?.... (....) That was the night that we left...we still don’t know where we’re going yet but I guess that’ll come in time....but sometimes it seems like time....time gets running so short on you ....like it’s gonna run out on you....and so much gets left behind....there’s not much you can do....but keep goin’....and keep searchin’....and to keep goin’....to keep on goin´, keep on goin´, keep on goin´, you keep on goin´...”
 * 10.01.85 Louisville, KY, intro to ´Racing in the Street´**

´´Gonna do a....little special song here tonight...for, uh....the Big Man is gonna have a little Big Man pretty soon (chuckles)...he´s gonna be a daddy (chuckles)....and this is for him and his wife Tina...and a happy birthday to Clarence....”
 * 10.01.85 Louisville, KY, intro to ´Can´t Help Falling In Love´**

´´There´s only 355 shopping days left so..... (....) Here he comes now....he don´t ever get no rest....he´s gotta pack up that Cadillac sled ....hitch up the V-8 reindeers....the man´s gotta be on the road all year long.....oh yeah....here he comes....I see him, he´s flying over New Jersey....he´s flying, he´s flying south now.... Lexington, Cincinnati, Louisville....now, has everybody been good all year ? (cheers) nobody did no lying ? (crowd : ´No´) nobody did no cheating on their boyfriend or their girlfriend ? (crowd: ´No´) good, that´s good, come on, boys and girls, ready ? here we go....”
 * 10.01.85 Louisville, KY, intro to ´Santa Claus Is Coming to Town´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//